I just watched August’s coaching call, which was SO helpful! I had been confused about the sound wall and was so glad to have it explained step by step.
My lingering wonder is about the mapping. Malia used the word bug as an example word to map. I am imagining that some of my K students may not be able to tell me the letter that makes each sound, even after those sounds have been introduced. What do you do in that case? Give it to them the first time, and then hope by time 2 or 3 they will know it is letter b (for instance) that needs to be written for the /b/ sound in the first box? Hope my question makes sense. Thanks!
Hi Kristen!
We’re SO glad you enjoyed the coaching call. It really was a deep dive on sound walls! For your example of “bug”, I would recommend having the students wait to sound map the word until after you’ve introduced the letters for the sounds for /b/ /u/ and /g/. Because you’re right. It would be very difficult to sound map if they don’t know the letters associated with those sounds. If you’re sound mapping a heart word like “said”, you can tell them the /ĕ/ sound is made by the letters “ai”. You can do the same if you’re introducing a high frequency word like “the” before you’ve taught all of those phonics skills. Please let me know if that makes sense!
I just watched August’s coaching call, which was SO helpful! I had been confused about the sound wall and was so glad to have it explained step by step.
My lingering wonder is about the mapping. Malia used the word bug as an example word to map. I am imagining that some of my K students may not be able to tell me the letter that makes each sound, even after those sounds have been introduced. What do you do in that case? Give it to them the first time, and then hope by time 2 or 3 they will know it is letter b (for instance) that needs to be written for the /b/ sound in the first box? Hope my question makes sense. Thanks!
Hi Kristen!
We’re SO glad you enjoyed the coaching call. It really was a deep dive on sound walls! For your example of “bug”, I would recommend having the students wait to sound map the word until after you’ve introduced the letters for the sounds for /b/ /u/ and /g/. Because you’re right. It would be very difficult to sound map if they don’t know the letters associated with those sounds. If you’re sound mapping a heart word like “said”, you can tell them the /ĕ/ sound is made by the letters “ai”. You can do the same if you’re introducing a high frequency word like “the” before you’ve taught all of those phonics skills. Please let me know if that makes sense!
Sarah